Which is the best GenAI tool to use?

A deep-ish dive into popular AI chatbots on the market and how to choose the right one.

Do you remember when people would constantly say the phrase “There’s an app for that.”?

I thought this was just a meme/trend that started on the internet, but it actually comes from a commercial from 2009 for the iPhone 3. Apple would go on to trademark the phrase the following year, to prevent their competitors from “pilfering” it.

How we entered the AI boom

We’re in a similar moment with GenAI right now, where every tech company is rushing to put out as many tools and platforms as possible so that they can dominate the market. During the app era, it took years for new tech companies to get VC funding, build their product, gain millions of users, and become ubiquitous. I know this because I watched the first four episodes of “Superpumped”, that show starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt about the rise of Uber.¹

The adoption and proliferation of GenAI tools in the last 15 months is truly staggering. ChatGPT launched on November 30, 2022, and became the fastest-growing app™️ in history, gaining 100 million users by January 2023. Even the people working for OpenAI did not expect it to be so popular. We’ve entered the AI boom—instead of there being an app for that™️, you could say “there’s a GenAI tool for that” (not as catchy or snappy as the original slogan, but it’s not my fault they named it GenAI).

Selecting the best GenAI tool for your needs

Originally, I wanted this post to be a deep dive into all the popular tools out there and answer the question, “Which is the best?”. I’ve since realized that this is the wrong approach.

Instead, it’s best—and easiest—to think about GenAI tools and platforms in terms of categories, and then pick one based on what you need to use it for.

Here are the main types of GenAI tools on the market right now, with some insight into which are the most used and well-liked based on what people (yes, real humans) have said about them so far.

Tools for Writing + Other Stuff (content creation, coding, etc.):

• ChatGPT
  
  The Big Kahuna. Developed by OpenAI and the first of its kind on the market. Still considered the best by many and everyone else is trying to catch up to its success.

• Gemini (formerly known as Bard)
  
  Developed by Google and ChatGPT’s biggest competitor right now. Wasn’t that great at first but many people have told me that they prefer Gemini to ChatGPT because the default voice is better, and they think it’s good at copywriting, creativity, and advanced reasoning.

  
  

• Claude
  
  The third most popular AI chatbot (the Kourtney Kardashian of the GenAI family, if you will). Claude claims that its new model can beat Gemini and ChatGPT. If you’re one of those people who liked 98 Degrees more than *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys in the early 2000s, Claude might just be the tool for you.
  
  Keep an eye on Claude: the company has Jeff Bezos’ money and was started by former OpenAI employees.
  

Tools within Tools:

• CopyAI
  
  Built on top of OpenAI’s GPT 3, CopyAI is designed to do what its name suggests: helping people write copy for a variety of content, such as blog headlines, emails, social media content, and web copy. This one has a lot of tools within the tool so if you’re the type of person who loves a buffet, CopyAI might be your jam.
  
  

• Jasper
  
  Jasper bills itself as an “AI copilot for enterprise marketing teams", which sounds like a tagline generated by ChatGPT. Jasper is more for companies and teams who want to create entire marketing campaigns, but it does have a lot of features. Used to be called conversion.ai and has been around for a while. This article details how one person uses Jasper as their writing assistant. See also: HubSpot AI.
  
  

• Microsoft/Copilot
  
  Microsoft’s tagline for its AI tool is “Copilot for work”, which sums it up perfectly. Copilot will be the GenAI platform that you’ll probably have to use if you work for a company that relies on Microsoft software, whether you want to or not.
  
  Is Copilot good? Honestly, I have no idea because I don’t have a job where I’m forced to use Microsoft products. But ask yourself: is Outlook good? Do you enjoy using Teams? Do you find MS Word and Excel to be a fun time, or have you just used them since high school?
  
  

Tools for Transcribing:

• Otter.ai
  
  Otter.ai is the most popular transcription and note-taking tool at the moment. A lot of people really love it and, as someone who used to do a lot of interviews, I can attest that transcription is a bitch. Otter.ai can also transcribe meetings in real-time, which sounds like an extremely boring read to me. If you can get your company to pay for a subscription, it’s worth using or at least trying out.
  
  

• Every other tool that’s not Otter.ai
  
  There are other voice-to-text/transcription bots on the market, but they’re probably not that good compared to Otter.ai or are built for specific tasks. This article talks about a few alternatives if you’re curious.
  
  

Tools for Creating Images:

• DALL-E
  
  Developed by OpenAI and uses deep learning to generate digital images. I am not an expert in AI image generation, but this article claims that DALL-E is the best overall image generator when it comes to “accuracy, speed, and cost-effectiveness.”
  
  

• Midjourney
  
  Another popular AI image generator that people seem to really like and talk about a lot. Compared to Dall-E, some think that Midjourney is better at creating high-quality, crystal-clear images.
  
  *I have zero drawing, design, or illustration skills so you’re on your own here.
  
  

Tools for Coding:

• GitHub
  
  GitHub has an AI-powered platform for coding and software development called Copilot, which is super confusing because Microsoft also has a GenAI tool called Copilot. Here is the difference: GitHub’s Copilot offers programmers suggestions while writing and editing code. Microsoft’s Copilot is integrated into Microsoft 365 applications (like Teams, Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint). Technically, both the GitHub and Microsoft Copilots can code??? This article breaks it down if you want to learn more.
  
  

• ChatGPT 4
  
  General consensus seems to be that GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT 4 are the best AI platforms for coding and software development right now. There are many more than this so, I don’t know…ask your coder friends? Hey, at least I clarified the whole Copilot/Copilot thing.
  
  

Tools for Editing and Grammar:

• Grammarly
  
  Dubbed the world’s “leading” AI-writing assistant, Grammarly edits content for grammar, style, wording, and code. I don’t always agree with Grammarly’s suggestions, but it’s super easy to use and I love when it tells me that my writing is better than 99% of their users.
  
  

• Hemingway Editor
  
  Claims to make your writing “bold and clear” by utilizing AI. Not a big fan of adverbs.
  
  

Tools for Research

• Perplexity
  
  Perplexity is a new AI search tool that is gearing up to rival Google search. People who use Perplexity rave about it and say it’s better than Google. I for one am not looking forward to telling people, “Please AI search engine that” instead of “Just Google it.”

  
  

• AI Tools for Academic Research
  
  There are a whole slate of these and I couldn’t determine which ones are best. This article and this article mention quite a few. You’ll have to do your own research about AI research tools.

  
  

Tools for Specific Tasks

There are SO MANY of these it’s impossible for me to weigh in on each one, but here are some tools for specific tasks:

• Social media posts
  Most chatbots will create social media posts for your content, but there are also ones designed for social media, like agorapulse.
  

• Newsletters and Emails
  Tools like rasa.io can create personalized newsletters for your email list.
  

• Landing pages
  Unbounce is designed to help businesses build landing pages faster with AI.
  

• SEO
  Again, most chatbots can do SEO but there are also specific AI tools for SEO, like AlliAI.

So, how do I choose which of these tools to use?

The short answer: think about one thing you want to automate or save time on. Pick ONE tool built for that task. Start using it. Don’t forget to follow the guidelines for writing good prompts.

After researching all of the GenAI tools available, I realized that figuring out how to integrate one (or more) of these into your workflow warrants it’s own newsletter post. I’ll talk more about this in the next edition.

If there’s a tool you like that I didn’t mention, or have an opinion on which ones you think are better, let me know in the comments!

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1. I didn’t finish the series because my ex-boyfriend was the one with the Showtime subscription and when we broke up I lost all login privileges. I guess the lesson here is that if you want to watch JGL play a Silicon Valley tech bro ask your boyfriend for the password while you’re still dating.

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SEO Graveyard 🪦 (this is where I put all the SEO keywords for each post to appease our content search overlords, aka Google)

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